Friday Knight News – Gaming Edition: 6-APR-2012

By Game Knight, on April 6th, 2012

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Welcome to another installment of weekly link love here at Game Knight Reviews. I managed to go a little overboard collecting links this week since my 5/week posting schedule has gone awry in an attempt to avoid burning out. For the indefinite future I’m going to commit to 3/week (1 review, 1 opinion piece, and 1 Friday Knight News collection) plus the guest posts from Robert Oglodzinski and Creighton Broadhurst as they are available. I may add the occasional extra review to the mix and an occasional interview, but I don’t want to commit to 5/week and end
up doing 0/week, which doesn’t help anybody at all.

This has been building for a bit and I decided it was time to do something about it by reducing the schedule slightly. The upshot is I’ll have more time for doing a better job reviewing materials and not feeling rushed. That said, I’m hoping to develop more collaborations with gamers and bloggers… Andrew Armstrong, one of the folks who did a guest post early in March 2012, is considering doing more articles and I already have Robert and Creighton offering regular content. I’d be happy to collaborate with anyone else interested in doing so about gaming –perhaps someone passionate about board games or collectible card games? Any takers?

And this weekend starts with gaming tonight (new campaign using the Zeitgeist setting for 4E with me playing a Fighter for the first time in decades!), so I say that Easter weekend is kicking off on the right foot!

What are your plans for the weekend?

On that note, let’s dive into the week’s content!!

Food for Thought

This falls into the “too cool not to share” realm of web tools… A web page that shows the traces of wind across the United States constantly updated with current data from the National Digital Forecast Database. It’s almost hypnotizing to watch. I can imagine such a map being useful to track dragon or other large flying animal migrations, airships, and other flying craft in fantasy, modern, or futuristic worlds… What do you see?

Lightning strikes during a test of a new laser guide star at the Allgäu Public Observatory in Ottobeuren, Germany. Credit: Martin Kornmesser, ESO

In a similar vein, apparently WotC has released some audio and video podcasts of games played with celebrities like the Penny Arcade guys or the folks behind Robot Chicken. I haven’t watched any yet, but find the idea interesting as a teaching aid as does Tobold Stoutfoot @ Tobold’s Blog. I think there are some valuable lessons there on letting the players drive the story as much as possible…

Do you have a gift for fantasy art? WotC is looking for artists for D&D Next! Check out their art test! (I have no art talent (beyond stick figures) but will be passing this along to my daughters who love a drawing challenge!)

Games and Gaming

April Fools didn’t go by unnoticed by writers of gaming blogs… Both the Dread Gazebo and R.M. Walker @ This is My Game had fun poking some fun
at D&D Next and you can find other variations on a theme. I’m sure there are plenty of others!

How serious are your games? Apparently Chris Dias @ Living Dice runs a very tight ship during his games. I’m not sure that I’d fit in with that style of gaming, but think it’s certainly valid to reach that level of commitment to the story, world, and characters being explored… (Though this article was posted on April 1st, I didn’t get the feeling that it was an April Fools’ joke of any kind…)

Speaking of Cubicle 7, icv2 reported recently that they’ve revised their plans for The One Game and will focus on individual sourcebooks and accessories instead of slipcover core sets as originally envisioned. The new products include Tales from the Wilderland, The One Ring Dice Set, Loremaster’s Screen and Laketown Sourcebook, The Darkening of Mirkwood, and a supplement based in Rivendell.

Kickstarter has been on a run lately with great products… One of the latest is Shadowrun Returns, a new video game based in the world of Shadowrun. It’s already blown past its funding target in a week and has 22 days to go… How far over its target will it get? I love the world, but have seen ideas like this go awry in the past. Will it turn out well?

Another cool Kickstarter this week is from Tracy Hurley @ David Solis – Prismatic Art Collection. I’ve already kicked in my $$ to help with this great project to get more diverse heroes into our games in art. And if you want more you can get a look at some sample art from artists involved at Tracy’s Sarah Darkmagic site.

Not to be left out, The Weem kicked off a Kickstarter this week for his TrackInitiative.com project. This is an online initiative tracker that isn’t D&D specific and can be used for darn near any kind of RPG with combat order needs. I’m not sure that I understand why it’s a web site rather than an app, but I think the benefits to tabletop sessions played online with geographically diverse gaming groups could be useful…

Raging Swan Press released So What’s For Sale, Anyway? V from Julian Neale and Trevor Self… This one focuses on pre-generated intelligent items to tempt your players with! Check it out at RPGNow/DriveThruRPG!

Interested in an easier way to manage sounds and music during your games? Quinn Murphy @ Critical Hits reviewed DMDJ from Blueface a couple of weeks ago – integrating an RPG music soundboard and dice roller in one app for the iPhone/iPad. Sounds like it’s a good start, but
maybe we should wait a bit to see if they flesh it out a bit…

The Legend of Grimrock has been on my radar for months and I’ve already pre-ordered my copy, but Jason Wilson @ Gamespy has the first review I’ve seen… Sounds like it will have similar issues to its predecessors… real-time combat, weapon cool down, and more… Even so, I remember wandering dungeon levels for hours in Eye of the Beholder and others, so I’m still going to have fun with this one!

Stargazer @ Stargazer’s world suggested a cool new font resource for anybody looking for cool free fonts for a gaming project – Pixel Sagas! The site has all sorts available and some specifically slated for fantasy and tabletop gaming!